Dear Charles! whilst yet thou wert a babe, I ween That Genius plung'd thee in that wizard fount Hight Castalie: and (sureties of thy faith) That Pity and Simplicity stood by, And promis'd for thee, that thou shouldst renounce 5 The world's low cares and lying vanities, Steadfast and rooted in the heavenly Muse, And wash'd and sanctified to Poesy. Yes--thou wert plung'd, but with forgetful hand Held, as by Thetis erst her warrior son: 10 And with those recreant unbaptizéd heels Thou'rt flying from thy bounden ministeries-- So sore it seems and burthensome a task To weave unwithering flowers! But take thou heed: For thou art vulnerable, wild-eyed boy, 15 And I have arrows[159:1] mystically dipped Such as may stop thy speed. Is thy Burns dead? And shall he die unwept, and sink to earth 'Without the meed of one melodious tear'? Thy Burns, and Nature's own beloved bard, 20 Who to the 'Illustrious[159:2] of his native Land So properly did look for patronage.' Ghost of Mæcenas! hide thy blushing face! They snatch'd him from the sickle and the plough-- To gauge ale-firkins. Oh! for shame return! 25 On a bleak rock, midway the Aonian mount, There stands a lone and melancholy tree, Whose agéd branches to the midnight blast Make solemn music: pluck its darkest bough, Ere yet the unwholesome night-dew be exhaled, 30 And weeping wreath it round thy Poet's tomb. Then in the outskirts, where pollutions grow, Pick the rank henbane and the dusky flowers Of night-shade, or its red and tempting fruit, These with stopped nostril and glove-guarded hand 35 Knit in nice intertexture, so to twine, The illustrious brow of Scotch Nobility! 1796. FOOTNOTES: [158:1] First published in a Bristol newspaper in aid of a subscription for the family of Robert Burns (the cutting is bound up with the copy of _Selection of Sonnets_ (_S. S._) in the Forster Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum): reprinted in the _Annual Anthology_, 1800: included in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817, 1828, 1829, and 1834. [159:1] [Πολλά μοι ὑπ' ἀγκῶνος ὠκέα βέλη Ἔνδον ἐντὶ φαρέτρας Φωνᾶντα συνετοῖσιν.] Pind. _Olymp._ ii. 149, κ. τ. λ. [159:2] Verbatim from Burns's Dedication of his Poems to the Nobility and Gentry of the Caledonian Hunt. LINENOTES: [1] whilst] while An. Anth. [3] of] for S. S., An. Anth. [25] gauge] guard S. L., 1817 (For 'guard' read 'guage'. _Errata_, p. [xii]). [33] stinking hensbane S. S., An. Anth.: hensbane S. L., 1817. [35] Those with stopped nostrils MS. correction in printed slip of the newspaper. See P. and D. W., 1877, ii. 379. [After 37] E S T E E S I 1796, An. Anth. ODE TO THE DEPARTING YEAR[160:1]